The present invention relates to a device and method for road-based support for electric vehicles.
Due to considerations of pollution, greenhouse gases and depletion of stocks of fossil fuels, electric and hybrid electric vehicles are being considered ever more seriously. Nevertheless, fuel cell technology has not yet come of age and batteries are limited by their energy to weight ratio. Thus electric vehicles that can compete with fossil fuel driven vehicles in terms of performance and range are not yet available.
On the other hand, electric trains are an effective means of transportation, and have been around for many years. Electric trains solve the problem of energy storage by being fed by an overhead wire or an electrified rail.
However ground level electrification is not possible on roads since pedestrians use roads. Overhead wires have been used in urban transportation with trams and trolleybuses, but trams have to follow a defined track along the road and are vulnerable to vehicles breaking down or other blockages on the track which they have no way of getting around. Trolley-buses had a tendency to come adrift from their overhead wires and thus neither solution is satisfactory.